Vietnamese security officers set up a fence outside an area of the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi (AP)
The Chinese foreign ministry has issued warnings asking Chinese not to travel to Vietnam and those already there to remain within their homes.
The protests, which began last Tuesday, came after weeks of tension in the South China Sea, where Chinese and Vietnamese ships have been jostling at the site of a mobile Chinese oil rig, 130 miles off the Vietnamese coast and within Vietnam's exclusive economic zone.
China, which plans to drill at the site until August 15, said the site is in its national territory because it also lies close to the Paracel islands, which the Chinese have occupied since a sea and land battle with Vietnam over their sovereignty in 1974.
Among roughly 80 Chinese ships protecting the mobile rig are two of the PLA Navy's biggest warships.
The Jinggangshan and Kunlunshan are 19,000-ton Type-071 ships, equipped with eight surface-to-air missile launchers.
Meanwhile, the Vietnamese government appears to be cracking down on the protests, with Nguyen Tan Dung, the prime minister, sending a text message on Saturday warning that there would be 'concerted and determined measures not to allow illegal protests that cause security and social disorder disturbances'.
Several small protests have been broken up and in Ho Chi Minh, the police dragged away several demonstrators. Witnesses in southern Ho Chi Minh City say police dragged away several demonstrators from a park in the city centre.
Posted by Unknown on Sunday, May 18, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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